This invention relates generally to trunnion roller bearing retainers, and more particularly to a retainer ring for removably interconnecting the retainer and the lip of a roller race.
Roller bearings are often made by forming the outer race from an annular metal sleeve, one end of which is thereafter cupped to provide integral roller retaining means for preventing radial displacement of the rollers. An integrally inwardly turned radially extending lip is formed at the opposite end of the sleeve. A complement of trunnion rollers is placed in the race and one end is held in place in the cup end. A retainer ring is interconnected to the lip at the other end to prevent radial displacement of the trunnion rollers.
The ends of the cup and lip form axial thrust faces for the ends of the trunnion rollers. With a full complement of rollers, the cup end and lip in contact with the trunnions must be very hard to prevent wear. Typically, the roller race is made of low carbon steel and must be heated to harden it. However, once the sleeve part of the formed race is carburized through heating, it cannot be bent without cracking. The current practice in making formed races requires copper plating the partially curled end on the outside to a point slightly below the end of the raceway before heat treatment. The copper plate acts as a barrier to carbon in the heating process and prohibits hardening of the covered surface. After heat treatment, the copper plate is removed from the heat treated race. The trunnion rollers are placed in the hardened sleeve and then the open end is bent over to retain the rollers in the race. Therefore, it is desirable to fully form and heat treat the bearing cup without the need to copper plate the curled end, and to retain the rollers with a separate insert at assembly.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in the present practice of forming roller bearings. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.